NEW DELHI : After ground preparations in place to privatise Thiruvananthapuram airport, the Centre is looking to impose the Public-Private Partnership(PPP) on six more airports in the country.
Those on the radar include Thirucherapally airport in Tamil Nadu, Varanasi airport in PM’s own constituency, Amritsar in Punjab, Bhubaneswar in Odisha, Indore in Madurai and Raipur in Chattisgarh.
The move reportedly follows recommendations from the Airports Authority of India(AAI). These recommendations, part of a detailed report, presently lies in front of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
In the first round in February this year, the Centre privatised 6 airports including Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Mangluru, for operation, management and development through public-private partnership(PPP) model in February this year.
At that time, the Adani Group bagged contract for all six airports by winning the bids with big margins. The contracts have a term of 50 years.
The AAI, which works under the Aviation Ministry, owns more than 100 airports across the country. According to reports about 25 among them, have been marked for privatisation.
The privatisation spree is aimed at raising resources for the Aviation Ministry. Early this year, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had written to the Centre seeking state control and management of its airport. at Thiruvananthapuram.
